On Thursday’s season finale of “Parks and Recreation,” the gang enjoyed a blast from the past at a concert featuring reunited rockers Land Ho! (a fictional band fronted by the real Jeff Tweedy). However, by the end of the episode–spoiler alert—the characters had leapt forward in time. The final moments took place three years in the future in a National Park Service office in Pawnee, where we join Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), her husband Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) and—hello, youngsters!–their toddler triplets.

The time jump was the writers’ way of keeping the show fresh as it transitions into a seventh (and likely final) season. We spoke to “Parks and Recreation” co-creator and executive producer Mike Schur about the pros and cons of TV time travel, organizing the Pawnee/Eagleton Unity Concert, and how they orchestrated a cameo by First Lady Michelle Obama.

How seriously did you consider moving Leslie to Chicago?

That was definitely a thing we considered for a long time. We could build a new set and maybe split her time between Pawnee and Chicago. Part of the reason we discussed moving to Chicago was that “Mad Men” basically did that. They built a new set and started a new firm. But the reality was that it was very hard to figure out anyone who would go with her.

The time jump is one of those TV devices that can be very hokey if handled improperly. Did you have conversations about the dos and don’ts?

We talked about big shifts in shows that we liked. And I brought up the one in “Battlestar Galactica,” which I thought was very exciting and so cool that you could jump ahead literally in the middle of an episode. There are many precedents of big, world-changing shifts in good shows that gave us the confidence that we could pull it off. At the end of the day, we’re still going to be telling comedy stories with this cast and this writing and production team. It felt like, we’re not going to run off the rails and become a different show.

With a jump of three years, how will you play with the changes these characters have gone through in the meantime?

That’s the big question. We thought very hard about what characters we should show in the time jump. We needed to see Leslie and that implied Ben. It made sense to see April and Andy based on what she told Leslie about wanting to stay in Pawnee. And then we see Jerry/Garry/Larry/ Terry, mostly as a joke. The other characters all have big questions about where they are and what they’re doing—Tom, Ron, Donna. You don’t see the people who have that kind of mobility for those other dreams they’ve been chasing.

Do you know what they’re up to?

We have ideas for all of them but haven’t committed to anything. We won’t get back into the writers room for season seven for another month. The number one task is for everyone to be thinking about what those people are doing and how to get them back into the show. We have some plausible operating theories.

We see Andy’s arm in sling. Will you be using flashbacks to explain how that and other stuff happened?

Given the fact that we’ve broken some of the rules that were established for the show, I feel like we have the ability to go back and jump through time a little bit. I’ve been wary of flashbacks in the past, because we’ve been moving along chronologically. “30 Rock” would do those quick pops to some flashback in the past, and we’ve never used that as a device before. But at some point we’ll learn what happened in those three years, and flashbacks will be a part of that.

When it was revealed that Leslie was carrying triplets, some fans got worried about pregnancy fatigue.

We were concerned, too. There are certain things about pregnancy storylines that are really fun and certain things feel like traps. We had played out Ann’s pregnancy pretty much real time, then Ron going through the life-change of having a son, even though most of it happened off camera. We just didn’t want to do a season of “Leslie’s getting bigger and her feet hurt and now she can’t sleep because the kids are crying.” It just seemed fresher to jump through all that. She had the kids, here they are.

You solved your pregnancy problem, but you have created a different problem in the form of three toddlers now in the mix.

Yes. But it’s a workplace show. They are a fact of Leslie and Ben’s life and they’ll be good parents and it will affect their lives, but the essence of the program people are watching every week is not going to change. We’re not suddenly going to have a ton of episodes about, like, how do I get my kids into the right preschool?

But on a practical level, you will have to cast child actors for these parts and give the characters names and personalities.

Different shows handle it in different ways. On “Friends,” Ross had a child that you just never saw. Occasionally he’d say, “I have to pick up Ben,” and that would happen once a year. And then there are other shows that make it a huge part. Frankly, I think we’ll be closer to the “Friends” model than, I don’t know, “Just the Ten of Us.” That’s the oldest reference I could think of.

Did the shooting of the Pawnee/Eagleton Unity Concert resemble a real concert?

I was talking to members of the Decemberists, who are my favorite band, and they were saying it reminded them of college, spring-fling weekend deals, where there’s a weird mishmash of different acts on a trailer stage in front of 3,000 people. That made me happy to hear. It was easily the biggest thing we’ve ever tried to pull off. One full day was band after band performing multiple times.

Was this the dream concert bill of the producers?

Decemberists and Jeff Tweedy, sure. One of our writers is good friends with Yo La Tengo, and he emailed them asking if they wanted to play a band that was in a silly joke from a previous episode. Bobby Knight Ranger is a band that dresses up like Bobby Knight and plays Night Ranger cover songs.

Is it a coincidence that “Summer Sun” [the signature song of Land Ho!] is the title of a Yo La Tengo album?

Not a coincidence. This is one of the greatest indie rock bands of the last 20 years, and they were disguised in costume for a 20-second cameo joke. So we wanted to do at least something to reference the actual bands on stage.

Who wrote that song that Jeff Tweedy played?

He wrote it with his son. I think it was a new song that they hadn’t performed before.

Did Michelle Obama and Amy Poehler have to rehearse to get the right amount of awkwardness in their high five?

Not at all. Michelle Obama was a total pro. She just walked on the set and had all her lines memorized and never faltered once. It makes sense. All she does is travel around the country and give speeches in front of large crowds of people. We had about 25 minutes with her total, and it was very smooth and easy.

Did she come to you or did you go to her?

She was doing an event in Miami for the Let’s Move! program, so we flew there for two days while there was another unit here shooting in L.A. We met her at a community center in Miami, where we ran in, set up a bunch of stuff, shot the scene, then bugged out. It was really crazy.

What’s the secret to recruiting the stars of Washington D.C. to be on the show?

Part of the secret is having Amy Poehler on your TV show because everyone loves her. When we shot in Washington, John McCain said yes because he had shot a scene with Amy on “SNL.” Politicians and even actors want to do it because they know it’ll be fun and they’ll be treated fairly. We’ve had people from the entire range of the political spectrum on the show, from Barbara Boxer to Newt Gingrich and Michelle Obama to Olympia Snow and Joe Biden. We’re not commenting about their politics. It would be just as bad to celebrate someone’s politics in the national spotlight as it would be to castigate them in some way.

How did you come up with the right hairstyle for Leslie of three years in the future?

That was all Amy’s doing. She thought she should have bangs and look different. I thought it was very effective. It doesn’t immediately hit you, but a different hairstyle can jolt you into realizing that time has gone by.